Bullish on their new momentum and energy, and feeling that Sarah Palin has completely innoculated herself from any sort of press scrutiny, the McCain camp has doubled down on flagrantly thumbing their nose at the media factchecks on the countless misstatements and out-and-out lies from their candidates.
It has gotten so bad that even Mark Halperin--the man who gladly claims "Drudge rules our world" and whose predilection for the most scurrilous and tawdry of the freakshow news story is topped only by his own desire for self promotion--actually attacked the media for their ridiculous, McCain-driven coverage.
But I think this is a low point in the day and one of the low days of our collective coverage of this campaign. To spend even a minute on this expression, I think, is amazing and outrageous.
He continues:
No. It's another thing that, again, I'm embarrassed about our profession for. She should be held more accountable for that. The "bridge to nowhere" thing is outrageous. And if you press them on it, they'll fall because they know they can't defend what they're saying. They're staying it on the stump as a core part of their message, it's in their advertising.
E-mail ABC and Charles Gibson and demand that he gives the American people the interview deserving of a VP candidate who is a heartbeat from the presidency--not just a forum for her to deliver Steve Schmidt designed attacks on Obama, unchecked.
On Thursday, Charlie Gibson is giving Sarah Palin her first "press interview." We all know that this is going to be a complete joke. A sham.
Charlie Gibson is not in this to further the cause of a vibrant and independent press. He is in this for one thing: ratings. And as we've seen, Sarah Palin will deliver ratings. In order to get ratings, Charlie Gibson will go easy on her so he can get a longer interview that can air over more days. It's as simple as that.
Now, let's take a brief time machine trip back to the last time ABC and Charlie Gibson weighed in so one-sidedly:
*** ObamaNation’s power: Curious of what the bitterness and anger could look like if Obama is somehow denied the Democratic nomination? Check out the reaction from the ObamaNation over Wednesday’s debate. To put it simply, ABC was under siege yesterday. This may only be a taste of how the ObamaNation would react to a Clinton nomination. If MoveOn is motivated to do a petition campaign against the media over a debate, imagine what Clinton delegates and undecided superdelegates would face this summer if there is doubt. And as the Politico’s Ben Smith pointed out yesterday, it’s also what the GOP would face in the general election, especially if Obama is nominee.
Here's the problem. We knew it was coming. But we didn't act until after the damage had been done.
